Welding Engineer

Newport News

We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated Welding Engineer to support our marine ship repair, shipbuilding, and manufacturing operations.

The Welding Engineer will be responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining welding procedures, ensuring compliance with applicable military, commercial, and industry standards, and providing technical support to production personnel.

The ideal candidate will possess extensive knowledge of welding processes, metallurgy, weld procedure qualifications, and quality assurance requirements associated with naval vessels, commercial ships, and marine structural fabrication.

This position requires close collaboration with engineering, production, quality assurance, and project management teams to ensure welding operations are performed safely, efficiently, and in accordance with contract specifications.

• Develop, review, qualify, and maintain Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS), Procedure Qualification Records (PQR), and supporting welding documentation.
• Provide technical guidance to welders, supervisors, inspectors, and production personnel.
• Evaluate welding methods, joint designs, filler metals, shielding gases, and welding parameters.
• Troubleshoot welding defects, production challenges, and fabrication issues.
• Develop corrective actions to address weld failures, discontinuities, and nonconforming work.
• Support welding operations involving carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, high‑strength steels, and other marine‑grade alloys.
• Evaluate welding distortion, residual stresses, heat input, and preheat/interpass temperature requirements.
• Assist with the development and implementation of new welding technologies and processes.

• Ensure welding activities comply with applicable specifications and standards, including:
• MIL-STD-1689, where contractually applicable
• AWS D1.1 and AWS D1.2
• ASME Section IX, where applicable
• ABS and other marine classification society requirements
• Review customer specifications, contract requirements, and engineering drawings for welding compliance.
• Support welder qualification testing and maintain welding qualification requirements.
• Coordinate with Quality Assurance and Nondestructive Testing (NDT) personnel to evaluate weld integrity.
• Review radiographic testing (RT), ultrasonic testing (UT), magnetic particle testing (MT), liquid penetrant testing (PT), and visual testing (VT) results.
• Participate in root cause investigations and corrective action development.
• Support customer audits, regulatory inspections, and government quality assurance reviews.

• Work directly with production supervisors and welders to improve welding efficiency, productivity, and quality.
• Evaluate fabrication methods to reduce rework, distortion, and production costs.
• Provide technical support for structural repairs, hull modifications, piping systems, and marine equipment fabrication.
• Assist in developing welding sequences and fabrication plans for complex assemblies.
• Review engineering drawings and provide recommendations regarding weld design and manufacturability.
• Support production planning, material selection, and welding equipment requirements.
• Coordinate with project management to resolve welding‑related technical issues and maintain project schedules.
• Identify opportunities to improve welding processes, equipment, and overall production efficiency.
• Develop and conduct technical training for welders, welding supervisors, and inspection personnel.
• Assist with implementing welding automation and mechanized welding processes.
• Evaluate emerging welding technologies and recommend…